Size of New Xbox Experience Causes Microsoft to 'Offer Storage Solutions'

October 10, 2008 2:38 PM

Mirroring Nintendo's fabled storage problems for the Wii, Microsoft will soon share the feeling: the New Xbox Experience, the Xbox 360 dashboard overhaul due in November, will be too big for some systems without permanent storage.

"The New Xbox Experience will require 128MB of free space," reads a Microsoft press release. "While we expect the majority of consumers to download the New Xbox Experience without a problem, a small percentage of Xbox 360 owners do not have enough memory to accommodate the update."

In its entry-level "Arcade" trim, the console comes with no permanent storage space whereas the higher-priced editions pack in hard drives with at least 20 GB--more than enough to fit the update.

"Microsoft will be offering storage solutions to the Xbox LIVE community," continues the press release. No further details are available at this time, but are expected to be made clear by the update's November 19 release.

Blake Ellison

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Mysig

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October 10, 2008 2:52 PM

Welcome to the cloud :)
- sharkII
  
   reply
  October 10, 2008 2:53 PM
  
  Live Mesh?
- billy_zelsnack
  
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  October 10, 2008 3:01 PM
  
  Good call. This is a nice little step for them to practice with leading towards the 720.
- Carnivac
  
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  October 10, 2008 3:05 PM
  
  Certainly a possibility as to the 'solution', I posted this earlier:
  Possible clues at to why (maybe how - online storage?) in this posting last week from a guy at Rare:
  http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/jake_lots_of_details_on_the_xbox_360_dashboard_nxe_via_rare.php
  
  If you do not have a Hard Disk (XBOX Arcade Console), you will still be able to recieve the update... however any cached data will be removed upon shutdown/restart of your console. So for those with limited bandwidth we recommend aquiring a Hard Disk. Currently the 20GB model is available for about the price of a game, so might be worth picking one up now if you don't already have one.
  ...
  All of the resources on NXE, particularly via Marketplace will download at varying quality levels to allow for quicker loading times on slower connections or at peak times. Everything is also cached to the Hard Disk, meaning once it's on your XBOX itself it will load instantly until updated on LIVE using no additional bandwidth.
  
  It's also been said that Microsoft's online service 'cloud' OS would be used behind the scenes to manage streaming/updates of the interface
  http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/917/917760p1.html
  
  http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=18149322#itemanchor_18149322
- the archvile
  
   reply
  October 10, 2008 4:12 PM
  
  if an XBox 360 cloud datastore fails in the server farm and no one is around to see it, does it Red Ring of Death?